Plastic can contain recession impact

Plastic is a silver lining in the global recession gloom, said participants at a seminar organised in the city on Saturday. “Per capitaconsumption of plastic in India is just 5.2 kg which is much lower than the world’s per capita consumption of 25 kg. It indicates thatthere is a huge potential in this field as the market is still untapped,” said Neelkamal Darbari, joint secretary, ministry of chemicalsand fertilisers.

Speaking at the seminar organised by Gujarat State Plastic Manufacturers Association, she advised plasticmanufacturers to innovate products to increase penetration of plastic and scale up their capacities to meet future demand. “There isvast scope of use of plastic in agriculture, which is immune to global recession,” she added.Elaborating on the subject of seminar, ‘Recession — an opportunity’, Kamal Nanavati, president, cracker and polymer, Reliance

Industries Limited (RIL) said, 55% of the country’s population falls in the age bracket of 20-60 years, which is productive in terms ofearning. He projected that the demand for polymer would touch 120 lakh tonnes in 2012. “Gujarat is a hub of polymer as the statecontributes 67% of the country’s total production. Plastic industry should focus on plastic conversion sector, where Daman is farahead of Gujarat,” Nanavati added.